Natalie Erin Mason
Edited c Natalie Erin Mason is a Void Diviner and is a part of The Black Legion. Her pleasant demeanor belays a growing concern about the nature of her akehura's corruption. Personality Despite her rather desperate situation Natalie is a very friendly and outgoing person, she prefers to be direct and doesn't like beating around the bush. She is also very duty driven and unflinchingly loyal to the Black Legion. She would leap straight into the Abyss without a second thought if Mephixus ordered her too. Natalie is also very protective of her younger brother and the two are almost inseparable. However, when her consuming shadows is active Natalie becomes a very different person. She becomes almost mindless in her pursuit of easing the perverse hunger she feels. In the past she has lashed out at people who try to stop her, including the brother of whom she is so protective. Known Attacks/Abilities *Piercing Shadows: Allows the user to turn nearby shadows into solid spears that strike out at the target. *Shadow Step: Allows the user to preform a series of short range teleportations from shadow to shadow. Target Shadows must be large enough to hold caster and must be within sight and no farther away than twenty feet. *Wall of shadows: Contrary to the name this is not a solid wall but rather a circling of constantly shifting and seemingly hostile shadowy monsters meant to ensnare, disorient, frighten, and confuse the victim effectively trapping the victim. The "Monsters" are perpetually out of reach of weapons and if something does slice through them they simply reform. *Consuming Shadows: A nasty blend of Shadow and Void Akehura that is beyond Natalie's control. Natalie's shadow spreads out and engulfs nearby fallen people consuming them to restore Natalie's health and life force. It does not distinguish between friend and foe, and can reach anywhere shadows can go. When active Natalie feels the hunger herself and is driven to sate it by removing any barriers the shadows can't bypass. *Void Strike: A simple spell in nature, Natalie fires a ball of dark akehura from the tip of her sword. Although it outwardly appears as a ball it is actually turbulent void energy that tries to shred everything it touches. The spell always has akehuran backlash, the severity of that backlash varies depending on the intensity of the Void Strike. *Ghost Blade: The blade of Natalie's sword is coated in Void akehura that can be rapidly expanded or shrunk at will. It appears as a ghostly blade and can pass through any object unhindered. It damages foes by inducing a forced backlash of akehura on the touched area, the effect resembles a sword wound. Natalie can't extend the blade more than two feet beyond the real sword's tip nor can she maintain it for more than a minute since the spell drains her health. *Dark Cloud: Void Akehura that forms a cloud of darkness around Natalie. So long as Natalie uses the ability it keeps expanding the cloud. Inside the cloud is pitch black and the cloud does not allow any normal light to enter and can prevent most forms of akehuran light from entering as well. Background Natalie was originally a normal human girl. She had a satisfactory life with her family in a small village on an island far to the west of Egradus. Her life however was to be flipped upside down when an outside came to visit the island. He claimed that he and his men were just on vacation and had heard that the island was a good place to visit. Happy for the business and flattered that their island had drawn the attention of people from the east the townsfolk were more than willing to welcome the newcomers. Shortly after the outsiders arrival a sickness began to spread among the island's people. At first it was no big deal, people got sick then they took medicine and rested before getting better. Even as the sickness claimed it's first life the people did not worry overmuch about it. The deceased had been quite old already. It was when two young men that had fallen ill died that the sickness began to draw concern. Action was taken immediately to try and quarantine the disease but it had very little success. Before long more than half of the island's adult population and a third of the island's children had fallen ill and of those numbers more were dying with alarming regularity. Frightened and desperate the islanders pleaded with the outsider and his men to take the children and protect them until the plague had been cured. At first it seemed the outsider would refuse the people but he agreed to take as many as he could. This meant however that some would have to stay. The man left with fifty of Island's children that day and left several of his subordinates to help cure the plague that had struck the island. Among those that were permitted off the island were Natalie Mason and her little brother Matthew Mason. It wasn't until they were out at sea that the dark secret was revealed. When asked if they would get to see their parents again the man blatantly answered no. He revealed that it was those very same men he had left behind that had introduced the sickness in the first place and that they had been left behind to finish the job. It took time for his words to sink in but as they did the children despaired. It was a long time before the ship arrived at Egradus and there was still more distance to travel. On foot and in chains Natalie and the others followed their captor to a hidden underground network in the forest of shadows. Their was a great risk of being discovered by the dragon rumored to live in the forest but it was for that reason that the man had set up his lab there. His work (much like his methods) far from legal so he didn't want the guild dogs finding him on some random sweep. He believed that no one came to the forest of shadows if they didn't have too. It was in this complex that the man known as Johann Wettin preformed experiments using predominantly void akehura to try and transform people into animals as well as into objects. Because humanoids were created from animals coming into strong akehura, Johann believed he could find a way to harness this and turn it into an ability that he could use on other people, forcefully transforming them into whatever he pleased. he also believed that void akehura was the key to making his dream a reality. For two years Johann was unsuccessful, his subjects died on a regular basis for various reasons as he worked on his polymorphic akehura. Natalie and Matthew lived in fear of being next to die for this madman. Desperate to escape at any cost the siblings began secret experiments of their own with the void akehura the permeated the air of the forest of shadows. At first they had no results but as they started to envision the desire they wanted most their spells came into being though they were far from being powerful enough to break the duo out of their cell. Before Natalie and Matthew could produce useful spells their turn in Johann's experiments came up. They were stripped of their clothing like all the others before them and brought to Johann's lab. The boy who had been taken away earlier was being dragged out of the lab as Natalie and Matthew arrived. They couldn't see him clearly but they did see the blood on the floor and immediately both felt fear rip at their insides. Johann was reading over a scroll and jotting something down here and there on it. He flicked his wrist and Natalie saw her brother dragged forward. Johann looked her brother over briefly before tapping Matthew's shoulder. Immediately Matthew cringed as his skin turned into scales. Johann rejoiced he then signaled for Natalie and she was pushed before the madman and he tapped her shoulder too. A slight burning sensation ripped all over Natalie's body as her skin was reformed into scales the burning caused her to cringe like her brother did but she could hear Johann express his delight. He went on to say that this stage had been successful and it was now time to work on adding and removing limbs. Even before Natalie was ready she felt his tap on her shoulder again and roaring pain erupted from the base of her spine as bone and muscle ripped out from her back, the pain was so great that Natalie screamed. the incomplete tail was later followed by scales that slowly coated it alleviating some of the pain. This bothered Johann and he returned to his scrolls to make a few adjustments. He returned to Natalie saying he would then try a snout to make sure the adjustments worked. Natalie cried out begging him not too but the tap on her shoulder came anyways and a dull burning sensation came across her face causing her to cringe like before but it was no where near as bad as the tail had been. Excited at his success Johann added frills to both her tail and head all of which built up more pain to the point where Natalie passed out. When Natalie awoke she was back in the cell with several others. At first she had thought it had just been a terrible nightmare but even as she raised a hand to brush hair from her eyes the scales she saw coating what should have been a human hand confirmed for Natalie that what had happened had happened for real. Then before she knew it the only thing that mattered was finding out what had happened to her brother. She couldn't see him anywhere, asking where her brother was, the others simply pointed next to her. Looking down at her side Natalie saw a lizard humanoid that was out cold. Matthew was completely unrecognizable in his new form. Fury and anguish welled up inside Natalie at the sight of her brother. When he finally came around Natalie told him they needed to escape right away. That night, using a small stone as a focus for her akehura Natalie started their escape by cutting a hole in the bars of their cell with her Void Strike, even as the spell was used Natalie could feel the gashes form across her body, it hurt a lot and she was bleeding rather badly, it took a lot to cut through metal after all, but it was nothing compared to the pain of her forced transformation. The shredded metal fell to the ground and Matthew was the first through, he wasted no time in using his own akehura to kill two guards. He seemed to hesitate for a bit but then wasted no more time in taking off down the halls. Natalie had thought he would help her but instead he went ahead for some reason. Regardless Natalie climbed through next and unlocked the cell doors freeing the others before leading them out. Natalie led the way through the tunnels trying to find a way out. She could hear guards down the other halls shouting in a panic. "Capture them if you can kill them if you must and don't hold back they can use void akehura one of thems already killed six guards." even as the words echoed down the hall the guards speaking them spotted Natalie and the others. Guards drew their swords and Natalie held up her stone telling them to stop but they ignored her. She drew up her power again and more gashes formed on her body again. The almost solid black ball of void akehura ripped through her enemy and the backlash ripped through her. Natalie collapsed and the others came to her aid by wrapping up her self inflicted wounds. She knew she couldn't do that again, not one that was that strong. So instead she took the sword from one of the dead guards and resumed leading the other captives out of the complex. She would have been happy if there were no more complications after that but news of the killings her and her brother had made spread like wildfire among the guards and they stopped trying to recapture their test subjects. The order had come down to simply kill them on sight. Before Natalie knew what was happening it seemed like every tunnel became filled with death. Every path they took, every turn they made resulted in the lose of life. Whether it was being crushed by stone, burned by fire, or struck down by lightning, the group Natalie was supposed to be protecting diminished little by little with every step they took. Until finally they found a way out. Natalie stayed at the base of the stairwell with sword in hand to ensure the safety of the others. Guards began showing up and Natalie fought hard against them using a weakened version of her Void Strike in order to hold the stairs for her brother's arrival. Natalie was slowly being overwhelmed, she was too injured to risk anymore void akehura and she was getting tired from all the fighting. "Duck!" Came a familiar voice and Natalie dropped tot he floor. A massive jet black blade of void akehura ripped through the guards surrounding her. As her foe collapsed to the floor Natalie could see her brother. He had clearly crossed the line that she didn't dare too. Her brother collapsed to the floor bleeding profusely and Natalie and some others rushed to aid him. Natalie put that horrible place behind her and took her brother along with the survivors into the forest to find a place to hide. Later after they had recovered she and her brother exchanged stories on what happened to them during the escape and Natalie was shocked to learn that her brother had gone after Johann to take his life and more than that she was shocked that Johann had slipped away. This meant that they would not be safe in the forest for very long. But, at the same time they felt that they couldn't just leave. This place was permeated with akehura, it was perfect for practicing techniques to defend themselves. So Natalie and her brother passed on their knowledge of tapping into the akehura to the others. Many of them didn't get it but some were able to use void akehura as well but like her they found that it's nature was vile and dangerous. In time Natalie expanded her understanding of void akehura and was soon practicing with shadow akehura. It was when she was out practicing that she encountered men from Black Legion, both her and the guild memebers were surprised to find someone else in the foreboding woods. Greetings were understandably brief, consisting solely of Natalie using her piercing shadows right away before fleeing. Despite her best efforts one of the two members from the guild was adept with tracking akehura and so easily found the cave she and the others had hidden out in. Natalie and the others were ready to fight off these intruders but the Black Legion members had a different plan. They offered to let the groups diviners join the guild so they could master their akehura properly. After a short discussion Matthew, Natalie and the others agreed but only on the condition that the non-diviners would not be abandoned. The soldiers agreed and asked for Natalie's and Matthew's names. Natalie and the others had decided some time ago that they would never again use their real names in order to protect themselves from Johann in case he came after them. So Natalie gave her name to Black Legion as Hoska Sengiri which was the most reptilian sounding name she could think of at the time. Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Female Category:The Black Legion Members Category:Diviner Category:Zeraal